Smart Home Archive

These robot vacuums are getting upgraded to support Apple Home

Andrew LiszewskiMar 31, 2025

SwitchBot’s smart button pusher is 30 percent off for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Sheena VasaniMar 31, 2025

Samsung’s latest stick vac can alert you to calls and text messages

Jennifer Pattison TuohyMar 30, 2025

Verge Score

BougeRV’s telescopic lantern is ridiculously versatile

One 3000 lumen lamp with four lights you can position independently.

Thomas RickerMar 29, 2025

First Alert’s new smart smoke alarm is meant to be a Google Nest Protect replacement

Jennifer Pattison TuohyMar 28, 2025

Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale door lock

Jennifer Pattison TuohyMar 28, 2025

Yale’s new smart lock can match your Google Nest doorbell

Jennifer Pattison TuohyMar 28, 2025

Amazon tests renaming Echo smart displays to Alexa

Jennifer Pattison TuohyMar 27, 2025

Jennifer Pattison TuohyMar 26, 2025

Ikea may be developing a Matter-over-Thread smart button.

An image of the unannounced Bilresa Dual Button was spotted by homewithapple. According to a post on Threads, it’s an upcoming smart switch with two individually programmable keys that use the Thread protocol over the Matter smart home standard.

Most Ikea products use Zigbee and work through its Matter-enabled hub, the Dirigera. The Bilresa (which translates to Drive) is the second rumored Ikea device to use Thread; the company recently registered the Timmerflotte, a Matter-over-Thread temperature sensor.

Wyze’s new camera filter claims to cut down on nuisance alerts

Jennifer Pattison TuohyMar 26, 2025

Verge Score

Reolink’s wireless camera easily transitions from vanlife to homelife

The Argus 4 Pro doesn’t require monthly fees and records 180-degree 4K video indoors and out, night and day.

Thomas RickerMar 26, 2025

I won’t connect my dishwasher to your stupid cloud.

Excellent rant from Jeff Geerling about lazy — or worse, exploitative — home appliance companies that insist on cloud connections to enable basic features. And it’s only getting worse with initiatives like “Screens Everywhere” from companies like Samsung and LG.

This trend away from physical buttons introduces privacy and security concerns, the prospect of costly repairs, and the perfect foundation for advertisements and subscriptions — maybe not now, but certainly when profits are threatened by, oh, I don’t know... global trade wars.

Andrew LiszewskiMar 25, 2025

Xiaomi’s new smart door lock can disguise your voice.

It’s almost certainly not coming to the US due to deadbolt incompatibility, but Xiaomi has launched a new smart door lock in China that includes an intercom voice changer, letting you disguise your identity while speaking with someone at the door, as spotted by Notebookcheck.

The Smart Door Lock 2 Cat Eye Edition also features several different ways to unlock it including a fingerprint reader, Bluetooth, NFC, passwords, and a physical key.